YOUNGSTOWN — The 7th District Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that dismissed a civil suit filed by a Warren woman over the purchase of a used car.
The ruling means the case goes back to Judge Maureen Sweeney and her magistrate, Dennis Sarisky, for further litigation.
Sweeney ruled Oct. 30, 2019, in favor of the request of Edward Wallace of Youngstown for summary judgment, meaning a decision by a judge without a trial. Wallace was the seller of the car.
Sweeney ruled that Wallace did not violate the Consumer Sales Practice Act because there was insufficient evidence that Wallace met the definition of a “supplier” of goods or that he committed an unfair and / or deceptive and / or unconscionable act or practice.
The buyer’s attorney, however, presented evidence from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles that Wallace had 192 vehicles titled in his name between Jan. 1, 2015, and June 4, 2018, and that Wallace could not be found in the Ohio BMV auto dealer database.
Online court records also indicate that Wallace was convicted July 21, 2015, in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman of engaging in the sales of motor vehicles without a license, the ruling states.
Those same records indicate that the case was brought against Wallace by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the Vindicator confirmed. The offense is a minor misdemeanor.
The law he broke prohibits someone from selling more than five vehicles in a 12-month period without a license, the ruling states.
The appeals court ruled there is a genuine issue of fact to be determined by a jury as to whether Wallace violated the Consumer Sales Practice Act when he allegedly told the buyer the car was safe.
The buyers also allege Wallace told them he would “have no problem driving the car to Florida.” The buyers were Serena Campbell and her mother Victoria Downing, both of Warren.
Downing bought the car for Campbell to drive between Warren and college in Cincinnati in 2018, the ruling states.
The car was a 2008 Saturn Aura XE with 115,000 miles on it. The women met with Wallace in May 2018 and bought it for $2,600, the ruling states. The buyers said they had trouble with the car starting the day they bought it.
Their attorney, Phil Arbie of Warren, sent a letter to Wallace June 11, 2018, accusing him of operating as an unlicensed used car dealer and stated the car was unsafe. The letter indicated that the car needed about $2,600 in repairs related to front-end damage and two new tires.
The ruling states that Campbell test drove the car for about 5 minutes with her mother as a passenger. Neither woman noticed any mechanical problems with the car.
Downing said in a deposition that she told Wallace the following: “This is going to be my daughter’s vehicle. She’s going to be 4 1/2 hours away from any family. She needs something reliable.’ And he said, ‘I’ve got daughters too. I’d have no problem getting in this car and driving it to Florida tomorrow.'”
The ruling states that Downing said in a deposition the car “broke down the first day Campbell drove it,” but Downing “did not recall exactly what needed repaired.”
As of May 29, 2019, Campbell was still driving the car to and from Cincinnati, the ruling states.
If Wallace told the women he would have no problem driving the car to Florida, then there is a “genuine issue of material fact as to whether the car was of a particular standard, quality or grade,” the ruling states.
erunyan@tribtoday.com
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